Christmas Eve-Eve

So it is Christmas Eve- Eve as we say in our house-- anything to make it sound like Christmas is closer!  

Today I finally got to make some cookies.  The act of baking for Christmas is a key to holiday spirit for me.

These are Peanut Butter Blossoms:

We make them every year but, these below are thumbprint cookies filled with Coconut Curd and drizzled with Nutella. Recipe courtesy of my friend Mary. It was the first time I made them and while they were not as good as Mary's they were yummy.

Having tamed my kitchen goddess inclinations.... I turned back to the sewing room and made this:

 This is a Sweetwater pattern called "Mama's Spools".  I used 

V & Company's fabric line "Simply Color" put out by Moda to make it and I love it!  It is a small wallhanging- about 35" square made using fusible machine applique cut from charm squares.

 It was quick and fun.

 Last summer I made the above lap quilt from the free pattern on Moda's website using Bella Solids. Today I am flipping through the books below for quilting ideas.

I think I am going to do some freestyle doodle quilting on it based on a combination of ideas from these books. I can't wait to start it. I have wanted to play with some modern quilting ideas for a while.

What a weekend!

So I was in New Orleans all weekend with this child, participating in the Southern Regional Oireachtas of Irish Dance....

 Three out of four of her figure teams placed even earning a 1st place in a four hand and recalling in her solo competitions for the very first time, placing 40th out of over 100 of the best dancers in our region!

All the while wishing I could clone myself so I could be in two places at once because.....

THIS child was back in Texas,

 having the best swim meet he has ever had! 

Tommy earned three "A" times in one meet (raising him to "elite" level), dropped time in all his events and earned High Point for the team! Thankfully I have the best husband ever who videotaped nearly every race for me AND sent me hourly reports on how he was doing. 

My cup is overflowing, I just don't know what to say...

I was looking at the pictures that I  took over the weekend,

 and this one:

Felt like it covered my whole weekend. I took it on Decatur Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was on the sidewalk- marked "water" but there was green glitter all over it probably from a recent parade. 

Water for my swimmer and glitter for my Irish dancer.....

Folk Angels

Last year I had the pleasure of quilting Denise's 

"Circle of Friends" block of the month quilt seen here: 

It won second place in the Tri-County Quilt Guild's show in the Kit/Block of the Month Category.

This year she gave me this quilt that I call the Folk Angels quilt. It is a lovely mix of patchwork (which is always near and dear to my heart) and Applique. 

Here are some before and after shots:

 After:

 

Before:

 After:

And here are some detail shots: 

 I used a different background texture on each of the angels backgrounds:

 Shots of the back of the quilt:

Halloween

Ironically as my children have gotten older they have gotten more into Halloween. Where when they were young (and I spent hours sewing their costumes!!) they would cry because their costumes were itchy or hot or not what they pictured--now, they create or buy their own costumes and are so much happier!
When they were little I stopped buying pumpkins because neither would clean them out to carve. This year they both requested them and happily (and masterfully) carved them out!
I thought we would be grown out of Halloween by now but I am happy to report we have only grown into it! They grow up so fast I am glad they are enjoying all the stages!

Daughter news

Last weekend my daughter had an Irish dance competition in San Antonio.  She has been taking Irish Dance lessons with McTeggart for 8.5 years now. That is her on the top of the podium! 

This was her second time receiving a first placement in the Preliminary Championship level of dance which means she moves to Open Championship level! It meant a lot to her and I was very excited for her to meet a goal.

Oh my gosh it's twins!

I had the pleasure of quilting two Christmas tree quilts recently for two sisters believe it or not! It was a block of the month for Sunflower Quilt shop in Houston. They had nearly identical quilts and both asked for custom quilting. 

Here they are side by side. 

Below are some detailed shots, starting with a before and after:

I started at the top of each tree like this:

Making it look a bit like pine needles and worked my way down making it look like each tree was standing in front of a sampler quilt of sorts. Here are some more detail shots:

 Top and bottoms of both had this row:

 I got to practice some feathers and ruler work.

These were some blocks in the quilt: 

Back shots, you can really see all the texture created with the quilting they both selected a very pretty metallic stonehenge fabric for the backing by Northcott:

 These were really fun to quilt because I could create a lot of stuff in all the negative space behind the tree which was a lot of fun. 

Thank you Bankie and Flo! I hope you enjoy embellishing them as much as I enjoyed quilting them!